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An Enhanced European Role in Iraq?IntroductionThe United States now has approximately 130,000 troops in Iraq and another30,000 support troops in Kuwait, a force that some senior U.S. military officialsbelieve stretches the country's combat capabilities, especially in the event of a majorcrisis in Korea or elsewhere. The Bush Administration wishes NATO countries tosend forces to Iraq to reduce the demands on U.S. forces, and to spread the costs ofstabilization and reconstruction. Key allies acknowledge the possibility of a NATOrole, but first wish to see a new U.N. mandate and greater sharing of decision-makingwith both the U.N. and the allies. Some other allies appear to reject involvement ina U.S.-led force, as a NATO force would be, and prefer a force with a substantialU.N. role.In a broader context, unresolved issues from earlier disputes among the alliesalso intrude in the debate over possible NATO involvement. These issues includethe causes of the war in Iraq, the role of the U.N. in NATO out-of-area operations,the military capabilities of the allies, and the effects of Iraq's evolution on the MiddleEast as a whole. In addition, vestiges of a dispute over allied assistance to Turkey inFebruary 2003 before the war with Iraq remain a cause for friction between theUnited States and several allies.A Role for European Forces?This section will first briefly review the debate in NATO over the last two yearsabout allied missions outside Europe. It will then discuss several related issues,primarily those generated by allied disagreement over the reasons for war with Iraq,that affect any possible decision by European governments to contribute forces tostabilize Iraq. There follows a discussion of the evolution of the Administration'sposition on its objectives for post-war Iraq and the necessary force levels to achievethose objectives. The section closes with an examination of how many Europeanforces might be available for Iraq, and the relation of force levels to costs.The NATO Debate over 'Out-of-Area' OperationsNATO members agreed in principle in 2002 that allied forces might be sentbeyond Europe to combat threats to member states' security. In May 2002, the alliesagreed that "to carry out the full range of its missions, NATO must be able to fieldforces that can move quickly to wherever they are needed, sustain operations overdistance and time, and achieve their objectives." Several months earlier, DefenseSecretary Donald Rumsfeld, when asked what NATO's area of operations should be,responded, "The only way to deal with the terrorist network that's global is to go